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How to navigate with Suunto Spartan GPS watches

24 October 2017

TutorialTuesday

How to navigate with Suunto Spartan GPS watches

24 October 2017

Suunto Spartan GPS watches are powerful tools for navigation whether you are following a pre-planned route, heading to a Point of interest or simply wanting to find back to where you came from. Learn more and build confidence in exploring something new.

Follow your own trail

The simplest way to navigate with your Suunto Spartan is to use your breadcrumb trail, the track you already have traveled. It is automatically drawn as a dotted line when you are tracking an activity in a sport mode that has GPS enabled. (Read more about sport mode customization and sport mode settings here)

Following your own breadcrumb trail comes in handy if you wish to find your way back to your starting point the same way you came.

You can zoom in and out of the route view by tapping the screen or keeping the middle button pressed. Adjust the zoom level with the upper and lower buttons.

Find your way back to your starting point

Another handy way to navigate with Suunto Spartan is to use its Find back feature. If you are using GPS when recording an activity, Suunto Spartan automatically saves the starting point of your exercise. With Find back, your watch can guide you directly back to your starting point.

While the breadcrumb trail leads you back to the starting point along your original route, the find back feature shows you the direct direction and distance to the starting point.

To start Find back navigation swipe left or press the middle button until you have reached the navigation display. (Note that you need to be tracking the entire activity from the beginning for the watch to know your starting point.)

Swipe up or press the lower right button to open the shortcut menu. Scroll to Find back and tap the screen or press the middle button to select.

Once Find back is selected, the navigation guidance is shown as the last display on the selected sport mode.

Navigating to Points of interest

With your Suunto Spartan you can navigate to any Point of interest (POI) that is in your watch POI list. You can either create POIs in Suunto Movescount and sync them to your watch, or save locations as POIs on your watch as you go.

Navigating a route during exercise

To navigate a route you will first need to create one – or select an existing public route – in Movescount and sync it to your watch.

To get started with route navigation select your preferred sport mode (that uses GPS) and then swipe up or press the lower right button to open the sport mode options. Alternatively, if you already are recording, keep the middle button pressed to open the sport mode options.

In the options select Navigation and then select Routes. You will see a list of the routes you have synced to your watch. Select your preferred Route with the middle button for more route info. Then press the upper button to start navigating. If you have not started the exercise recording yet, the last step takes you back to the sport mode options. Scroll up to the start view and start your recording as normal.

While exercising, swipe right or press the middle button to scroll to the navigation display where you will see the route you selected. You will see your position in relation to the route. If you leave the planned route, the watch will show an Off route message. You will also see the track you have traveled as a breadcrumb trail.

You can zoom in and out by tapping the screen or keeping the middle button pressed. Adjust the zoom level with the upper and lower buttons.

If you have entered waypoints on your route, your watch will notify you as you approach them. These same notifications work also when navigating to POIs. When customizing sport modes you can also add ETA (Estimated time of arrival to a waypoint) and ETE (Estimated time to route’s end) as data fields.

While in the navigation display you can swipe up or press the lower button to open navigation options. From the navigation options, you can, for example, save your current location or select another route or POI to navigate.

You can also start route navigation by selecting ‘Navigation’ from the launcher and then scroll to your preferred route.

Route altitude navigation

If you are navigating a route that has altitude information, you can also navigate based on ascent and descent using the route altitude profile display. While in the main navigation display (where you see your route), swipe left or press the middle button to switch to the altitude profile display.

If you stray too far off from the route while using altitude navigation, your watch will give you an Off route message in the altitude profile display. If you see this message, scroll to the route navigation display to get back on track before continuing with altitude navigation.

Please note: The sport mode you are using needs to have GPS enabled to be able to access the navigation options. If the sport mode GPS accuracy is OK or Good, when you select a route or POI, the GPS accuracy is changed to Best.